Avenger Assembled

Jack folded his arms. "Hello to you too, Stesha," he fired back, an unaccustomed look of annoyance on his face. "Yes, I am very concerned about Moira. You made things sound desperate on the phone. What happened to Moira?" He was worried about his friend, despite his annoyance with Stesha, and he put his hand protectively on Phantom's as they talked.

Having come quietly and invisibly up the stairs, the first anyone knew of Jack was when he arrived. He opened the door, already coming up with a convenient alibi that was thoroughly thrown off by Stesha, Dark Star, and Taylor! Aw, son of a... He saw Taylor better and approached her, a worried look on his face as he took in her injuries. "Oh, jeez, what happened? Are you guys all right?" He looked around at the others, wondering if he'd missed an abortive battle.

Jack stopped to change into costume before they did their work, his change for her the first time he'd actually let anyone see him put Avenger on. First came the heavy turtleneck, then the black leather jacket, then the heavy motorcycle gloves, and then finally the black ski mask and white hockey mask. When he turned around, the tall, elegant Jack was replaced by the short, growling Avenger. He hefted the crowbar. "May wish to transform as well. Best to keep him off-balance."

Me too. What an NPC! Approved!

"I can," said Jack shortly, obviously trying to avoid an argument. "I'll be there within twenty minutes if the traffic allows. Jack out." He hung up the phone and sighed. Well, this was going to be an interesting afternoon. But surely it wouldn't be as bad as all that. There were plenty of heroes in Freedom City, and Moira had always seemed to know all of them. This might be a difficult time, but how embarrassing could it be?

"All right, Taylor, if that's what you want," he sighed. Well, he was going to have to use strategy for this one. He thought of the crowbar at his belt, remembered the emotions he felt when he saw Taylor running, and thought of a pretty viable line of attack. (As it were.) They drove past an abandoned warehouse near the edge of Grenville, and Jack unexpectedly pulled off into the grassy parking lot behind it. Grenville was a new area, but not so new that it didn't have businesses that had already failed. "We'll do it here," he said, stepping out into the darkened lot.

There was dead silence on the line for a minute or so before Jack said, "I'll be there right away, Stesha. Have you called in anyone else on this? Moira's got a lot of friends." He was in Greenbank, looking with some distaste into a meatpacking warehouse that Melinda had once owned. Why hadn't this place been shut down years earlier? It was just...well, now it was going away, and that was what really mattered.

:bat: "Contrary to certain fictional depictions of super-education, " said Summers gently, "we are required to maintain state standards to receive certain grants and support from the state and federal government. The school's strong relationship with certain individuals in Freedom City shields us from any serious pressure from Trenton." He leaned back in his chair. :bat: "We can make the arrangements necessary to accommodate your needs. And you can do the same for us." He hrrmed. :bat: "Would you be willing to act as an escort for our students when they undertake various extracurricular activities?"

"I'll deal with that," promised Jack. He hesitated a moment, then said simply, "You probably aren't going to want to watch that," he said after a couple of moments. "My work when I'm not with the Knights is fairly...fairly intense. It's not something most people enjoy seeing." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, an unhappy look on his face, as he waited for Taylor's response.

Jack came up with a BS story for the people who'd seen the robbery about the thug he and his girlfriend had chased off, his arm protectively around Taylor's shoulder as they headed for his car. Once there, with the doors closed and both of them inside, he looked over at her and remembered both the excitement of the chase and the enjoyable time they'd spent together before that. He leaned over and kissed her, tasting faintly of orange as he pulled back. "Lord, you're beautiful," he told her with a grin.

This dimension is fairly congruent with Earth-Prime as such things go, with a divergence less than a century ago local time. There are a couple of big anomalies though, and a few snowball effects that have led to some significant alterations in the local trans-dimensional climate. The particular sort of teleportation beam that took the kids isn't generally used by human or Lor sciences; it's more a product of Grue engineering than anything else. Furthermore, Dr. Archeville is experienced enough to recognize that signature from Freedom League reports: the beam that took the students away originated on Erde! Nazi-Planet-O'Doom!

"He's probably a DNAscendent, then," said Jack thoughtfully. "They take street thugs and give them powers in return for being their goons. Don't know why he'd want to break into my car, though..." Actually, he did have a couple of ideas, but neither of them were very pleasant. "I'm sure my identity is better protected than that. Maybe this guy is just a cast-off. He didn't seem nearly as competent as some of the other street guys I've heard about."

:bat: "We have been in the market for an intergalactic civics teacher," said Summers thoughtfully. :bat: "I need you to pass a state licensing exam. This school is a legal entity in the state of New Jersey, and we are required to produce certain materials from all our teachers. Even ones who come with very respectable recommendations." He drummed his fingers on the desk. :bat: "In the meantime, I suggest you speak to Ms. Dugan, the assistant headmaster, about taking a position as a community volunteer. Would you be willing to work without pay until the state licenses you?"

The more Taylor studied the were-fox, the more obvious it became that this was no creature of the supernatural. The markings were all wrong for a genuine lycanthrope, and true kitsune would radiate a very different sort of mystic energy. This was nothing other than sheer hokum; science designed to look like magic. Next to her, despite his secret familiarity with this sort of thing, Jack was thoroughly baffled. "I don't even know where to start. I'm tempted to just kneecap him with his own crowbar and bring him to the cops." He wound up slipping the crowbar into his beltloop, though, ultimately opting not to beat up on the unconscious monster. That wasn't very nice.

Fixed, Dark Star. And go ahead and put up your Concealment as you go. :D

And some more fiating. These guys aren't doing so hot. Have an HP, Dark Star, and give me a DC 21 Reflex save to keep from getting stuck inside Nevermore's Affects Insubstantialx2 Create Object there.

The vampire Grue's bones and muscles shifted around again, skin writhing horribly over his warping dead skull. "The time for deception is over! I, D've F'ly, shall stand alone in the glories of undeath!" Evidently the loyalty of a vampiric Grue was...well, about as reliable as one might expect, when you got right down to it. With a roar, he brought his mighty fists together, warping together his fingers and transforming them into a species of malignant snake found only on the Grue homeworld. Extending them wide, he extended his snaky talons at the Scarab in an attack both bizarre and terrifying to behold as the teeth and claws closed in on her. It was terrifying to watch; actually hitting would have been even more impressive. With a curse, Nevermore waved his hands, dismissing his ghostly escort. "Fools! You shall never triumph over the power of death itself!" He targeted the space ghost who had hurt him, naturally, focusing on Dark Star and chanting in a grim tongue. At his words, a blast of pure black energy came boiling out of his fingertips to ensnare Dark Star inside a great glowing black human skull!

Have an HP for not noticing Jack's Subtle effect, there. ;)

Jack grabbed the were-fox by the wrists, a look of murderous fury in his eyes. "Release me!" he spat, glaring into the man's eyes with a look of intimidating wrath. Suitably chastened, the fox-man did so, just in time to take a blast to the chest from Phantom that knocked him out for good. Dusting himself off, Jack rose to his feet. "Guess you got your chance," he said with a feral grin at Taylor, "Good shooting. Glad I got out of the way in time."

"The Impies probably are used to seeing T-Rexs and stuff around here," said Agent H, looking as relieved as the other teenagers to see the T-Rex was their friend rather than their enemy. "I bet they won't notice us if we come in behind one. If one charges their perimeter, or just gets into some business, it'll be a big surprise for them." She nodded, looking pleased at the strategic sensibilities of her classmates. "Let's do this thing."

"I'm sure we'll figure it out," said Edge confidently, buckling himself in next to Geckoman in the co-pilot's seat. He had no idea how to read any of these old-fashioned gauges or dials, but he was sure he'd be able to help Chris figure it out if there was a crisis with them. "Lock and load, buddy," he said, clapping Geckoman on the shoulder. "Let's see what you can do with this thing."

OK, so the bodies have, as the song says, hit the floor. Ronin and Malice are down; it's a DC 20 (since Dark Star's not using his full Gravity Control) Strength check to take either a standard or a move action a round; the move action is limited to crawling five feet. I'm inclined to think that Ronin's Strength check will be only DC 15, since he did pass the Reflex save (though without Evasion). Arrowhawk is up! Barely. Did you want to do a "I am stunned and it sucks" post, or move on to the next guy, Ecal?

The teleporter is sophisticated. Very sophisticated. If a high school student built this, he is going to be a _terror_ when he grows up. The builder is obviously familiar with Daedalus-tech, though he's also obviously not Daedalus or a direct student thereof. A closer look reveals that the teleporter is perhaps a little _too_ sophisticated. The super-performance, super-tech components are vulnerable to tampering from a brute-force signal from outside, and it looks as if something like that happened here. As to where that signal came from, it's hard to tell, but given the dimensional nature of the teleporter, the odds are very, very good that it came from a dimension not this one. (Not the Terminus. Dr. Archeville, like almost all FCU heroic scientists, has been trained enough to recognize signals from Omega's realm very easily.) He's got the dimensional signature recorded well enough, but that'll be more a function of his Physical Sciences knowledge.

Needed some fiating there. Have 2 HP, Scarab.

The Grue staggered and nearly fell underneath the mental bombardment, only mastering its will through sheer unholy might. Despite the Scarab's failure to break the Grue's will, though, she noticed that some of the vampires below had caught sight of her efforts...and seemed to be on her side "Yeah, you get that Grue!" a black-haired woman called from the corner as she stood in a small circle of battling vampires. "I remember '68 too, you bastard! My mother died when your ship blew up half of Lincoln! I can't believe you've been a monster all this time!" Meanwhile, Jack erupted upwards into the interior of the building after Melinda, turning her hunt against her as he disappeared into the darkness of the interior of the building itself. "Melinda. Listen to me." He whispered into the darkness, a floating shell of his former self. "Leave the city now. Go somewhere else and run the parties again. No one else needs to die." The worst part of it, as he sought her out unsuccessfully in the darkness himself, was that he meant it...even as he knew, perfectly well, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Melinda would never give in. This night, he was going to have to kill her.